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uf * ” EXTRACT roy. THE MINUTES. 
On motion, Resolved,“ That the t hanks 

of the General Theological Seminary 
Rev. Professor MeVickar for his 
y ‘sheen delive: 


the ads o1 


Yy = ig 
y M. Warnwricut, i od 


Secretary Board of Trustee ? 
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S°E RR. MOV Ng 


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MATTHEW xvi. 3. 
wk 


‘Can ye not discern the signs of the times ?” 


We live in an age that may well make the 


Christian tremble as well as rejoice. ae every land, — 


the labors and eres success of es ‘lit Vv 


shorn of its tna in-our owl 
the extension of Our population fa — 
proportional means oe spiritual instruction es ~and 


aby the wise, and og of the iehiogaae under 
es the sacred name of ices oo must be esteemed 


, the evar ie to be a6 bled’? On what side are the 
ramparts to be strengthened? ‘This is the question 
I now bring before you, and, as the advocate of 
the General Theological Seminary of our Church, 
it becomes my duty to maintain, as it has long 
been my serious conviction, that upon it, as a 


. pon us, as Churchmen and as Cheisianiy 


2 
this to be actia! Wher: 


‘ 

ae 

+ 

we i 
a ee 


6. 


chosen sentinel, we are mainly to rely for our 
safety. The argument I shall press is shortly 
this — the signs of the times are such as demand 
a more than ordinary preparation in the education 
of our clergy, and if these signs are to be to us, 
as we may judge from the reproachful question of 
the text, the indication of our present line of 
duty, it then follows that we are peculiarly bound 
to strengthen that seminary which was founded 
by ‘the united wisdom of the Church for this very 
end ; Ne from all the circumstances which 


ish it,is most likely tosend forth ministers, 
learned and thor oughly educated. | * 


Such is the argument to which I respectfully 


a 


solicit your attention; and as the conclusions 


follow necessarily if the premises be admitted, 
my main * eg will be to satisfy ye 


signs of the times — - for, 
It Is AN AGE OF BOLD, INTELLE 
‘Iv is AN AGE OF WILD OPI} ? 
DELUSION. 
Ir is AN AGE OF THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY. 


WE LIVE IN AN AGE OF BOLD, INTELLECTUAL IN- 
quiry. Thisisthe first sign of our times. 'The world 


fe 


is afloat under a new deluge; and, as of old, the — 


& 


~*~ 


7 


Church is the only ark of safety — old landmarks 
of human opinion are pulled up or swept away, 
and a new survey is to be taken of the ground. 
Be it for good or ill, such we see to be the char- 
acter of our age, and that the Christian Church 
must now hold its own, not by ancient reverence 
but by modern reason. Never was it so true as 
now, that “ knowledge is power,” since never was 
its dominion half so.extended. All are educated. 
Learning has come forth from its cloister, and 
Science has come down from her high seat, that 
they may make acquaintance with the common 
throng of men—they sit, I may say, with the 
artisan at his trade, and the poor man in his 
hovel, and even with the child in his infant school; 
for it is a truth, that we now give to lisping 
infancy more of scientific. knowledge than con- 
stituted the once admired wisdom of our fathers. 
N ale... this gift of knowledge a blessing, 

must be sanctified by Religion; but, to convert 


, Religion must itself be learned. It is 


ob Poud therefore, that for such ‘a generation, 
more learned Bs A must be provided than suf- 
ficed for their less inquiring forefathers. As the 
shepherd must go before the flock — at whatever 
pace they travel —so must the clergy be in ad- 
vance of the laity, under the penalty of being 


é : . # 
despised as ignorant, or abandoned as incompetent 


Ye 


8 


teachers: and such is found to be the fact. Though 
at all times it has been the duty of the Christian 
teacher to be prepared to give to every man 
that asked, “a reason of the faith that is in him,” 
never was it so hard a task as now to satisfy 
the querist; for the question is too often put, 
not in honest doubt, but in infidelity and scorn; 
and the doubter is knowing, and the infidel is 
learned, and the scorner is eloquent, and even 
the most ignorant caviller at revelation has his 
sophism and his answer, while the eager and half- 
learned auditors of such discussions, (and by the 
road-side may we now hear such questions argued 
as a century ago were confined to the closets of 
the learned,) these half-learned judges, I say, are 
always ready to vote the truth a lie, so soon as 
its advocate is gravelled by objections which he 
has not learning to answer. What, then, is to be 
our security? Humanly speaking, this, and this 
alone — let the advocates of truth be nioifffie earned 
than those of error — let our clergy not only live 
ut also be able to 


down infidelity by pious livesybu 
preach it down by sound argument, and to shame 
it down by an exposure of its sophistry and igno- 
rance — let them be able, like St. Paul, when 
met with the taunting challenge, “ What will this 
-babbler say?’ to meet the challengers on their 
ewn ground, and by an appeal to their own 


9 


boasted altars of science and proud philosophy, to 
convict of ignorance those who come to sit as his 
judges. 


Believe me, then, my brethren, this is no age 
in which the Church may safely repose on the lap 
of ignorance. ‘Can ye not discern the signs of 
the times?’ Can ye not see that learning is an 
enemy, if not schooled into being an ally, and, 
consequently, that Churchmen may not, without 
sin, leave feeble that seminary, from which its 


most learned defenders are to come forth. 


But, secondly, ‘THE aGE IN WHICH WE LIVE IS 
ONE OF WILD DELUSION. Learned infidelity, like a 
lowering cloud, may threaten storm, but ignorant 
fanaticism, like a lurid light in a cloudless sky, 
betokens more fearful convulsions. But I need 
not dwell upon the picture. The question is, as 
to the remedy ? Tanswer — sound and thorough — 
scriptural learning in our clergy. ‘This is the 
opponent fanaticism most dreads, and before 
which its spirit is ever forced to quail. But that 
we may not prejudge the question, by stamping all 
as fanaticism which condemns or lightly esteems” 
clerical learning, let us hear the arguments by 


which such condemnation is maintained. ‘They 
2 ; 


10 


are the same in principle, and differ only in degree. 
Some reject learning as needless—others condemn 
it as unscriptural, while too many, without going 
to such lengths, hastily conclude against it, as 
unfavorable to the cultivation: of evangelical 


piety. 


By some it is pleaded, that the promised aids of 
the Spirit supersede, in religious truth, the culti- 
vation of human reason. But, is it reasonable, I 
would ask, that we should close our eyes, because 
Gop vouchsafes us light to see ?— for reason is to 
man as the eye, and revelation the heavenward 
light to guide it. What, too, is the light of reason, 
but natural revelation; and equally with that 
brighter beam, coming down from the Father of 
all lights? ‘To despise reason, therefore, is not to 
qualify, but to unfit otirselves for revelation — 
it is to bring down upon us the condemnation, 
“Take from the slothful servant that one talent 
which he hath buried.” | 


But, to look at the question in another shape. 

P the Christian an inward light may supersede 
- ny one exertion of his reason, I would ask him, 
’ which one? and, if one, why not all? for in each 
instance, the argument must be equally good or 
equally worthless ; and, if in all, then let us close 


1] 


our translated Bibles, for that translation is the 
fruit of much and varied human learning, and 
without it, would never have been effected. But, 
if driven by this absurdity, the argument of 
learning be esteemed good for the translation, it 
follows, conclusively, that it is equally good for 
the interpretation, since that alone is the end in 
view ; and, consequently, that there is and ought 
to be no other limit to sound theological learning, 
than the time, means and talents, wherewith Gop 
hath blessed us. 


But, say again such reasoners, look at the 
scriptural model? What were the blessed apos- 
tles but ‘‘unlearned and ignorant men?’ I an- 
swer, such were they in the eyes of their blinded 
persecutors ; but not such in the estimation of the 
Christian — no, nor in the eye of reason. Accurate 
acquaintance with all written Scripture, profound 
skillin its interpretation, and a thorough acquaint- 
ance with foreign languages — these are not the 
marks of ignorant men; but.on the contrary, the 
very definition of clerical learning; and they who 
exhibit them are truly learned, however the 
attainment may be come by; whether by the — 
inspiration..of a moment or the study of years. 
Setting aside, therefore, theinapplicability of their 
case, that of the apostles, if adduced at all, must 


12 


be in proof of the necessity of a learned ministry, 
since Gop was pleased to work even miracles to 
make them so. He might, we well know, have 
converted the world, before dumb and ignorant 
men; as, from stones, he might have “raised up 
children unto Abraham ;” but He chose rather to 
work by means and second causes, and to make 
His first Gospel ministers eloquent and learned, 
as well as humble and pious, in order that they 
might be a model to their Successors through all 
succeeding ages. ies 


But we might further retort upon such reason- 
ers their own argument. If we take the apostles 
for our model, which among them, we may ask, 
was most successful in his ministry? Who con- 
verted nations by his preaching, and made kings 
to tremble on their thrones, and cry out, at the 
words of a prisoner in bonds, “‘ Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian.’ Was it not he 
who, alone among the apostles, was brought up 
in all human wisdom, and educated at the feet 
of a most learned teacher? May we not, then, 
on our part, say that Gop has liere set His seal 
to a learned ministry, by thus blessing more 
abundantly the piety and zeal of the preacher 
when armed with the knowledge which educa- 
tion gives. | Te 


13 


Is it not, then, our bounden duty, we ask again, 
to provide the means of this increase, and to 
strengthen that seminary which is most likely to 
send forth such laborers into the harvest. 


But again, what foundation is there for the 
opinion, that clerical learning is unfavorable to 
clerical piety? Does reason teach this doctrine? 
Where is the argument which shows the improve- 
ment of the understanding to be at the expense 
of the heart 2 Or is it likely that we shall love 
Gop less because we know him better? It is the 
fool, who hath said in his heart “ there is no Gop,” 
who alone can be permitted to say in his folly, 
that “ Ignorance is the mother of piety.” For the 
Christian to say so is a suicidal act : it is to fight 
the battle, not for Gop, but for the father of lies, 
and that, too, with a poisoned weapon that “ shall 
pierce the hand of him that useth it.” Does 
revelation thus teach, or He who is the blessed 
author of it, when He calls upon men to unite “the 
wisdom of the serpent with the harmlessness of 
the dove,” and to take pattern from those blessed 
spirits with whom knowledge and holiness go 
hand inhand? Does it come from observation of 
facts? Has learning hurt the piety of him whom 
we all delight to honor, and who stands forth in 
our Church as its profound scholar, as well as its 


14 


pious and venerable patriarch.* Are the unedu- 
cated of our Church the most pious of its sons, 
or the safest among its teachers? Would it not 
be found, on the contrary, generally speaking, 
that the Gospel is preached among us in greatest 
simplicity, as well as with greatest strength, by 
those whom early training and clerical learning 
have armed against the seducing influence the 
ignorant feel, of the presumptuous novelties 
of modern unauthorized interpretation? How 
stands the experience of the Christian Church 
in this matter? What does its whole narrative 
teach us, but that piety and learning in the 
clergy; ignorance and corruption, however dis- 
united in particular instances, have’always, asa 
general fact, proceeded hand in hand; learning 
and ignorance being as the seeds of which piety 
and corruption were the fruits. It were long to 
examine the proofs of this assertion, but look at 
the accordance of general facts. If we ask, what 
led the way to the corruptions of the Church of 
Rome? History answers us, an illiterate clergy. 
What kept the Church bound for ages in that den 
of iniquity? the answer isthe same — the shackles 
of ignorance — the inability of the majority of the 

* Need the name ‘be added of the Right ‘Rev. Bishop 
White ? ; 5 | 


415 


clergy even to read — let alone, to interpret the 
word of Gop. What, too, awakened it from that 
deadly lethargy %. under Gop’s providence, cleri- 
cal learning. Luther became a reformer under 
Gop’s mercy, because Luther was a zealous scrip- 
tural scholar; his eyes were opened by reading 
the Christian Scriptures in their original tongue; 
and as to the knowledge of the Hebrew we have 
his own emphatic words, “ For the whole Turkish 
empire would I not exchange it.” And who were 
foremost in this glorious work of reformation? 
they who were foremost in the ranks of human 
learning ?. Who, too, defaced it with false novel- 
ties, and wild heresies, and licentious fanaticism ? 
they who had zeal without knowledge ; the igno- 
rant, but well-meaning preachers of the Gospel; 
and if since that time we seek among the nations 
of Europe, for “the pure faith once delivered to . 
the saints,” where shall we find it? save in that 
.country where alone clerical learning has been 
liberally cherished: Yes, my brethren, with all 
the defects that may be charged upon the learned 
seminaries of our mother land — defects insepa- 
rable, it may be, of all things human; and, at any 
rate, studiously aggravated by such microscopic 
minds as can count the cost but not the gains of a 
wise expenditure; under all these, it must yet be 
acknowledged, that the learned schools of Eng- 


16. 


land have been to all Christendom as a shield and 
buckler, and to the Protestant faith in particular, 
the only vigilant sentinels ofits Gospel purity —they 
alone have kept sufficient watch and ward against 
those wild and wandering heresies of human pride 
-and ignorance which have unobservedly crept in, 
or openly forced their way into every Protestant 
church not similarly guarded.’ Now, if these 
facts be so, and we need not fear to put the issue 
upon them, let us hear no more of that idle cant 
which sets learning in opposition to piety. ‘The 
experience of the Christian Church teaches an- 
other lesson —that next to an humble heart, piety 
has no ally like sound learning; and next toa 
wicked one, no enemy so deadly-as intellectual 
ignorance. Give, then, to our clergy thorough 
education, and give to the Church the means-of 
training them in it, that they may be watchful 
guardians of the apostolic faith, and sound expo- 
sitors of the pure word of Gop. | 
The last sign of our times is one that makes 
the learning of the clergy not only a sacred duty 
but a glorious privilege. IT. 1s AN AGE OF THE 
FULFILMENT oF PRopHecy. Whether it be that 
we are approximating to its closing period of 
which the indications are doubtless not a few, 
and, therefore, it is that all truth is coming forth 


17 


on the side of religion, is a matter that it might 
be presumptuous here to enter upon; and, at any 
rate, is foreign to our argument; but unquestion- 
ably such ds the fact as to human knowledge; it is 
every day ranking itself more and more under 
the banners of revelation, as if marshalling it to 
its great and final triumph. Science is, step by 
step, as I may say, Christianizing itself, recanting 
all its infidel conclusions, and turning into argu- 
ments for our faith those very physical phenomena 
which it once laid as stumbling-blocks in our 
path. Of this argument, thus novel, forcible, 
and cumulative, permit me to bring before you 
two examples in illustration. 


The organic remains of our globe, indicative 
of its early changes, have been, until our own 
day, boastfully spread forth by unbelievers as a 
scientific demonstration of the falseness of the 
Mosaic narrative of the creation ; but how stands 
it now ? these mouldering bones of living forms, 
which even Adam never saw, have sprung up 
before our eyes into living witnesses of Adam’s 
faith and Moses’ veracity ;* the infidelity, which 
science planted — science, with its own hand, 
now roots up; and the once hostile study of 


*See Cuvier on Organic Remains. 


3 


18 


geology now ranks itself the willing handmaid of 
revelation. 


Astronomy, too, began with being infidel — the 
scriptural picture of the creation of this fair 
scene, and still more of its destruction by fire, 
was, in the eyes of astronomers, as a nursery tale. 
Now, the creation of new worlds is one of the 
facts of science, and their dissolution by fire, one 
of its most rational conjectures, if I may not 
rather call it, one of its observed phenomena ;* 
and recently, as if to meet the very sneer of the 
skeptic, at the ignorance or inconsistency of Moses 
in antedating the creation of light, while as yet 
there was no sun —as if to meet, I say, this very 
sneer — the astronomers of Europe are even now 
promulgating from their high observations, that 
among the nebule, or spots of diffused light, long 
seen in the heavens, certain prominent ones have 


* The most remarkable instance of this on record, was the 
case of a new star which appeared in 1572, in the constella- 
tion Cassiopeia. It became all at once so brilliant that it 
surpassed the brightest stars, and even Venus and Jupiter, 
when nearest the earth. It could be seen at mid-day. Its 
color, too, varied greatly, like that of flame. Gradually the 
brilliancy diminished, and, without changing its place in the 
heavens, eventually disappeared ; and has been no more seen. 
A similar phenomenon was observed in 1604, in relation to 
a star in the constellation Serpentarius ; which, after similar 
variations, has also entirely disappeared. 


19 


recently been observed concentrating, and a 
star or sun by degrees presenting itself in their 
stead.* My brethren, what would we more? 
Though our dull ears hear not in those distant 
regions the morning stars sing together, yet do 


not our eyes there behold a renewal of that mys- 


terious morn, when, amid songs of joy, our own — 


glorious Sun first arose out of the pre-existing 
light, and began “asa giant to run his course.” 
Thus — thus it is that wisdom is justifying her 
children. Now, what an argument is involved 
even in this single phenomenon, not merely for 
the confirmation of the Christian, but for the 
overthrow of the infidel. How happens it, we 
may ask, that Moses thus anticipated a physical 


fact, which it has required the science of four: 


thousand years to develope? How happens it, 
that this oldest of all books, should not, like all 


*See the Paper of Sir William Herschell, addressed to the 
Royal Society, in 1811, on the subject of the celestial nebule. 
From this it appears, that all these diffused masses of light 
are, by a regular process of gradual condensation, approach- 
ing to a spherical form, and gradually assuming the definite 
brightness of regular, fixed stars; whence we might conclude, 
independent of the Mosaic narrative, that sueh had been the 
process of the creation of our own sun,-and that its original 
state had been that of a luminous fluid. See also Shuttle- 
worth, ‘On the Consistency of Revelation with Human 
Reason,” Chap. V? See also the Nebular Hypothesis of 
La Place ; and Whewell, B. Il «7. ~~ 


20 


other books, have become antiquated in its know- 
ledge; but that, while the most unpretending as 
to science, it should yet be outliving all the 
boasted science, which, in every age, has dared to 
rise up and condemn it; and all its supposed errors 
and ignorances, which infidels have triumphed in 
detecting, should be successively turning out to 
be a wisdom and knowledge of nature, to such 
proud sciolists unknown? Is not the very exist- 
ence of such a book a miracle? and is it nota 
most worthy and noble argument, and one that 
our clergy should be enabled, by education, to 
press home upon this inquiring age — that of 
bringing to bear upon the Bible all the increasing 
lights of human reason. In our day, too, this 
‘argument will have double weight, not only from 
the temper of the age to value it, and the fitness 
of hearers to receive it, but also because the rapid 
advance of physical knowledge is daily multiply- 
ing these points of contact. 


So marked, indeed, is this sign of our times, as 
to have already called forth the conjecture. of 
reflecting minds, that to centtiries, as to indivi- 
duals, may belong each its appointed task; and 
that the peculiar task and duty of that in which we 
live, will be to Christianize science, by identifying 
its results withthe truths of revelation. ~Noble 


oo) 


. 


21 


and cheering prospect! 'True it is, that we can 
here pick up, but, as it were, among the ruins of 
the temple, piece by piece, scattered fragments of 
that divine philosophy which once made all nature 
a glorious mirror of the power, the presence and 
the mercy of God; but still, who knows how near 
we may arrive, or how much may be effected, by 
uniting learning with piety in the education of our 
clergy? For, if to human endeavor be destined 
SO glorious a reward, to whom belongs that honor 
before the Christian ministry? And if to the 
Christian ministry, what portion of right can 
claim it before the clergy of a Church which 
boasts its descent from the most learned Church 
of Protestant Christendom? one that has ever 
stood foremost in the cause of Curist, when 
either the sword or the shield was wanting in its 
defence. | 


But, in the meantime, let us bethink ourselves 
what is the condition of that Seminary from which 
they are to come forth, that Seminary for which I 
plead, and which I may well term the right hand 
of our strength, whether it be for war or triumph. 
Do its numbers accord with this increasing call 
upon it? do they correspond even to the ex- 
isting necessities ‘of our church? In fitness, 
those whom it sends forth, arevall we ask; for 


sd 


r. 


‘te 


22 


learning and piety in the sehen beget them in 
a ‘scholar. But how small the band, Let 
Churchmen say why its numbers should be but 
one-third of the Presbyterian Seminary at Prince- 
ton, and one-fourth of the Congregational School 
at Andover ? 


Look, too, at its funds; do they correspond 
with the wealth and liberality which unquestion- 
ably exist among us, and as unquestionably are 
displayed by us in answer to almost every other 
demand? Can Churchmen be aware that this 
unfed mother of their children is consuming, I 
may say, her own heart’s blood: in their sup- 
port? Yetsuch is the fact. At the rate of near 
$1500 a year is its productive’ capital annu- 
ally decreasing, through its necessary, though 
most economical expenditure. Means of relief, 
it is true, it has in prospect; but though ample 
in name, in reality they are unavailing. Exposed, 
besides, to all the uncertainties which attend 
future contingencies, and therefore not to be relied 
on by prudent men; above all, ina cause of such 
present. emergency. What, too, are they in a 
question of our duty? When our starving child- 
ren ask bread, shall.we give them what is colder 
than a stone, the fair sight of some distant.crop | 
which other hands: have sown for their future sup- - 


“e 
2a 


port ; or even if such funds could be anticipated, 
would it not be shame in us, as Churchmen, thus 
prematurely to exhaust a fountain which, rightly 
guarded, will one day send forth a perennial 
stream; and tenfold shame, as menand Christians, 
» thus to add meanness to sacrilege, to rob the 
treasures of the dead, in order that we may 
throw off our own responsibilities, on a pious 
liberality that has now gone to.its reward. 


Let Churchmen, then, give to this holy cause as 
Gop hath prospered them, and, in some proportion, 
ie: if they can, to the great interests that are at stake. — 
~ Once satisfied ofits necessity, let them not transfer 
to others a ‘duty which, by their own acknow- 
ledgment, rests upon them; nor take upon their 
consciences what, by neglecting to give, they 
unquestionably do —the guilt of causing its fail- 
ure; for, however the great Head of the Church 
may raise up to the Seminary other friends, yet, 
inasmuch as the call is now upon you, my bre- 
thren, upon you that responsibility rests. 
_ 

But, I fear not your decision. If you will-but 
rightly regard the signs of the times, you cannot 
but appreciate the value of a well-educated 
ministry. Like watchful mariners, you will see 
the necessity of anchormg your Church beyond 


*. ¢ 
e* 2 


ry 
24. 


theinfluence of these shifting currents of ignorance 
and human passion. As Churchmen, you will feel 
a virtuous pride in making it an ark of safety to 
those driven about without chart or compass; 
and, as Christians, you will feel it your imperative 
duty to hold high and feed: well that lampeof reli- 
gious truth which Curist hath committed to your 
keeping, in order that over’ this intellectual, en- 
thusiastic and prophetic age, it may shed a pure, 
and steady, and heavenward light— that when 
the cry is made, (and who knows how soon it 
may be made?) “Behold the Bridegroom cometh!” 
_ our Church and its true members may be ready 
~ to join in that triumph, and to “enter in with” 
Him into His glorious kingdom.” 


